1236 METABOLISM OF LIPOIDS, STEROLS, [pt. iii 



The problem had already been raised in the case of man. Senator 

 in 1880 had assured himself that indican and other ethereal sulphates 

 were present in the amniotic liquid but not in the meconium. Then 

 Shibayama ascertained in 1927 that foetal blood gives a more intense 

 indican test than maternal blood ^, although bacteriological examina- 

 tion always shows the meconium to be sterile. B. coli does not appear 

 in the intestinal tract until a day or two after birth. The indoxyl- 

 sulphuric acid must therefore arise in the intermediary metabolism of 

 the foetus, and that its main source always is intermediary metabolism 

 is also the opinion of Kishi who has recently reviewed the question anew. 



100 



90 



80 



70 



60 



50 



40 



^30 



1,0 



S..0 



<r> 



E 



E 



20 



Turtle, Thalassochelys corbicata 

 Kusui •Total ^ 



OFree y Cholesterol 



12-8. Phosphorus, Sulphur, Choline and Cholesterol in Rep- 

 tile Eggs 



Kusui, in his work on the cholesterol metabolism of the developing 

 marine turtle, Thalassochelys cor- 

 ticata, found, as Fig. 400 shows, 

 a diminution of the total cho- 

 lesterol and a transfer of it from 

 the free to the combined form. 

 This is extremely interesting in 

 view of what all workers have 

 found to take place in the hen's 

 egg (see Fig. 389) and it would 

 seem as if the increase of esters 

 of cholesterol, at the expense 

 of the free substance, was a 

 phenomenon common to many 

 de\'eloping organisms. 



Glutathione has also been 

 estimated in these eggs : Tomita 

 found 0-15 mgm. present on 

 the 30th day of development 

 and 0-8 1 mgm. on the 45th. 



The phosphorus distribution 

 is interesting, for just as PUm- 

 mer & Scott found a production 

 of inorganic at the expense of organic phosphorus in the hen's egg, 

 so Karashima found the same thing in that of the turtle : 



^ This was confirmed and placed on a quantitative basis by Hensel. 



Days 10 20 30 



Takahashi •Total 

 O Free 



• 



40 

 Choline 



